What (to do with) the beef?!

You might have heard about the meat scandal that hit Sweden a couple of weeks ago.  The beef that was sold here was actually pork that was dyed red.  We weren't affected since we buy halal meat and it's quite easy to get them here.  In fact, the store near where we live sells 3kg of minced beef for about SGD24.  That's quite a lot of meat!

We usually get the butcher to pack it in 1kg bags and when we get home, I would freeze two of the bags and use one bag at a time.  Even then we would have a lot of meat to get through, considering it's just the two of us. 

So, usually when I have the one kilo of meat to use up, I would always have a few meat recipes on hand.  Most of the time I would use half of the meat to make bolognese sauce.  This would be enough for a couple of meals so I would portion it up and keep.  Sometimes, instead of making spaghetti, I would add more spices to the sauce to eat with tortilla or I'll make lasagna. 

The other half of the meat would be turned into meatball mixture.  I would season the meat and make the traditional Swedish meatballs.  Sometimes I'll make meatloaf with it.  I also make small meatballs and put them into soups.  In this cold weather, we have been having more soups to warm us up and meatball soup is very good to have now.  Adding lots of cabbage makes it a filling meal.

With the mixture, I would make small patties.  They are called pannbiff here.  They are actually like meatballs but shaped into small patties.  They are cooked with caramelised onions.  You also make a thin, tasty gravy with the pan juices.  It's really yummy.  I have seen it in the menus in restaurants here but it was only a couple of days ago when Pete asked me to cook it that I knew what it was exactly.

I looked at a couple of recipes but as usual, in the end, I went with whatever I had in the pantry.  It turned out tasty, actually.  The onions made the patties so sweet and savoury.  I would make it more often after that.  I would serve it with boiled potatoes and peas, my favourite combination.  Another variation I made was to put the patties into a baguette with slices of cheese, tomatoes and cucumber.  We also topped it off with the caramelised onions, mustard and tangy American dressing.  That was good.  Best of all, it's way cheaper than those sold outside. 

I will be looking for more recipes that use up minced meat.  I don't want to serve up the same ol' dishes.  Pete is ok with the food I've been cooking.  He loves the spaghetti and the meatballs so he doesn't complain.  But I do get tired of the same thing all the time.  I need more variety.  Maybe I'll try some Asian recipes next.  Watch this space :)  

pannbiff

pannbiff sub